1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus in which liquid which is supplied through a liquid supply path in which a filter for filtering the liquid is provided is ejected from nozzles formed on a liquid ejecting head.
2. Related Art
In recent years, an ink jet type printer (a liquid ejecting apparatus) in which ink (liquid) is ejected onto a target such as a paper sheet from nozzles formed on a liquid ejecting head has been known. In such a printer, ejection properties of ink through the nozzles of the liquid ejecting head are ensured in such a manner that a filter chamber in which a filter is accommodated is provided in the middle of a liquid supply path through which liquid is supplied to the liquid ejecting head and foreign matter or air bubbles in the liquid which flows from an upstream side to the filter chamber are collected by the filter.
In an ink jet type printer disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2012-45725, a filter is horizontally disposed in a filter chamber, and thus the filter chamber is divided into a first chamber on a downstream side and a second chamber on an upstream side by the filter. An ink discharge opening (a liquid outlet) through which ink flows from the first chamber on the downstream side to the liquid ejecting head side is provided downward at a position separate from the filter and an ink supply opening (a liquid inlet) through which the ink flows from an upstream side to the second chamber on the upstream side is provided at a position in which the ink supply opening is horizontally displaced from the ink discharge opening and faces an upper surface of the filter from above.
Meanwhile, in the printer described above, foreign matters or air bubbles which are collected, by the filter, from the liquid flowing into the second chamber of the filter chamber, which is located on the upstream side, are adhered to an inner portion of the filter or to a surface (an upper surface of the filter which is horizontally disposed, in JP-A-2012-45725) of the filter, which faces the upstream side.
Thus, when the ink supply opening through which the liquid flows to the second chamber faces a surface of the filter, which is located on the second chamber side, the foreign matters or the likes which are collected by and adhered to the filter are pushed by, for example, the liquid which flows from the upstream side to the second chamber of the filter chamber through the ink supply opening during a printing operation, and thus the foreign matters or the likes may pass through the filter to the downstream side. As a result, the foreign matters or the likes which unexpectedly pass through the filter flow from the first chamber on the downstream side to the liquid ejecting head and this results in, for example, clogging of the nozzles. Accordingly, there is a possibility that ejection properties of the ink may be deteriorated.
When the foreign matters or air bubbles which are collected by and adhered to the filter unexpectedly pass through the filter and flow to the first chamber on the downstream side, particularly, the air bubbles normally remain in an upper portion (a portion directly below the filter, in JP-A-2012-45725) of the first chamber. Thus, when the ink discharge opening through which the ink flows from the first chamber to the liquid ejecting head side is provided in a lower portion of the first chamber, there is a possibility that the air bubbles remaining in the upper portion of the first chamber may not be discharged even when negative pressure is applied, from the downstream side, to the filter chamber to perform maintenance of the liquid ejecting head. As a result, discharging properties of the air bubbles through the liquid supply path are deteriorated, and thus a supplied amount of the ink cannot be sufficiently ensured. Therefore, there is a possibility that ejection properties of the ink may be deteriorated.